Political BDS fails

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement does not have anything useful to contribute to the peace process, and will never bring reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians closer. Then again, that has never been its aim.– Michael Freeman (Counsellor for civil society affairs, embassy of Israel, London)

On August 8, 2018 the BDS movement published a list of what is claimed were the “Top 70 Moments of Solidarity & BDS for Palestine in 2018” and stated that “together, we grow it stronger every day”. The list can be found here.

On May 14, 2018, the US Embassy in Israel officially moved to, and opened, its new embassy in Jerusalem, declaring that Jerusalem IS the capital of Israel.

On May 17, 2018 the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign LOST its case against the UK government. The Court of Appeal ruled that it was indeed illegal for local councils & their pension funds to pursue boycott, divestment and sanctions against foreign nations. The PSC was left with £100,000 of costs to pay.

On May 21, 2018, Paraguay opened its new embassy in Jerusalem. The Paraguayan leader Horacio Cartes called it a “historic event,” adding, that this occasion “is of special significance because it expresses the sincere friendship and brave solidarity between Paraguay and Israel.” He continued “From the depth of my heart, I appreciate this country that courageously defends its right to live in peace and it is building a praiseworthy, economically prosperous state that ensures its future and that of its children.”

On May 16, 2018 Guatemala opened its new embassy in Jerusalem. President Morales said his country, Israel and the United States “share friendship, courage and loyalty”.

On May 23, 2018 the State of Louisiana issued an executive order preventing the state to do business with entities boycotting Israel. They became the 25th state — 50% of the U.S. – who have now said NO to the antisemitic BDS campaign.

In June 2018 HRH Prince William, the Duke of Cornwall and 2nd in line to the British throne visited Israel for 3 days. This was the first ever official visit by a member of the Royal Family to Israel and a HUGE BDS fail.

In 2018, Israel has been ranked 8th most powerful country in the world. US magazine poll by US News & World Report of 21,000 people lists Jewish state above Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

On May 30, 2018 UK Science Minister Sam Gyimah announced that the UK has signed two landmark agreements that would take the UK’s partnership with Israel on science and innovation “to the next level”.

June 30, 2018: A federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU in Kansas City arguing that Kansas’ anti-BDS law violates the First Amendment was DISMISSED with prejudice. Now that the anti-Israel lawsuit is gone, Kansas anti-BDS legislation is back in full force and effect.

Aug 13, 2018: In a sign of Buenos Aires’ changing attitude toward Israel, the Argentine Foreign Ministry has issued a statement that seems to put the blame for recent clashes between the Israeli military and Hamas squarely on the Palestinians. Referring to the recent escalation in tensions that has seen Hamas fire hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory and the Israelis carry out numerous retaliatory strikes against Hamas outposts and fighters, The statement expressed its “deep concern” over the violence, which it said was “caused by the launch of rockets towards Israel.”

Yavne-based Aeronautics Ltd. (TASE:ARCS) will supply Dominator unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the Thai Ministry of Defense, the company today reported to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). The volume of the deal, which includes UAVs, land equipment, and accompanying services, is $27 million over three years. Payment will be according to the milestones set in the agreement.

The Standard and Poor’s (S&P) credit rating agency announced Saturday that it has upgraded Israel’s credit rating from A+ to -AA, the highest rating Israel has ever had.

The raised rating is a very significant achievement for the Israeli economy and indicates confidence in the ability of the economy to grow and the government’s ability to maintain a responsible fiscal policy. On the practical level, it will allow the government to raise funds under better terms.

Raising the rating to AA-minus puts Israel among a relatively small list of countries in the AA-rated family, and places it above countries such as China, Japan and Chile.

Centrica plc has today (Monday) announced a multi-million-pound investment in Driivz, an Israeli start-up that offers end-to-end software solutions for electric vehicle (EV) charging. Ombu Group, a leading investor in advanced industrial technology companies, has co-led the investment, which forms part of a £9m ($12m) funding round.

Established in 2012, Driivz has developed a cloud-based EV charging operating system that is already used by over 200,000 drivers across the globe. The Driivz platform offers charging network operators, car manufacturers and utilities an end-to-end solution to manage all aspects of EV deployment from charging, account management and driver billing, through to onsite power management that allows businesses to optimise output to chargers in line with site energy demand and costs.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett increased his stake in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries to 4.3% during the second quarter of 2018, according to the quarterly financial statement from his investments firm Berkshire Hathaway.

Cultural and technological BDS fails

Lana Del Ray: "performing in Tel Aviv is not a political statement or a commitment to the politics there just as singing here in California doesn't mean my views are in alignment w/my current governments’ opinions or sometimes inhuman actions" #BDSfail! https://t.co/UPzLyMcoXT

A group of researchers — including several from Israeli institutions — have succeeded in sequencing the wheat genome, the Hebrew newspaper Makor Rishonreported on Friday, citing Science Magazine.

Professor Tzion Fahima — head of the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa — was quoted by Makor Rishon as saying, “With global population growth, it is expected that by 2050 the world’s population will reach 10 billion people. In order to feed all of humanity, we must double the wheat crop.”

Fahima added that the mapping of the genome would make it possible for that target to be attained, and that the wheat produced would be “healthier, stronger and more resilient.”

In addition to the University of Haifa, the other two Israeli bodies involved in the project were Tel Aviv University and NRGene.

Organizers of a major music and arts festival in Berlin continued to defy anti-Israel activists protesting its sponsorship by the Israeli Embassy in Germany as the three-day event opened on Wednesday.

In a statement, the organizers of the Pop-Kultur Festival affirmed that they would not be “intimidated” by boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activists who object to the embassy’s presence among its dozens of corporate, government and private foundation sponsors.

“This type of cooperation is common practice at festivals, exhibitions and events of all genres in international cultural exchange,” the festival said.

It stressed the “festival’s role in overcoming boundaries and creating room for dialogue.”

Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram on Saturday broke the world record in the clubs-handling round at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Minsk, and went on to win the gold medal in the all-round phase of the competition.

The 19-year-old Ashram received a score of 20.65 for her clubs demonstration, surpassing the 20.05 record set at the 2018 European Championships by Russian Dina Averina.

Liel Levitan is 7. She lives in Haifa with her parents and her three siblings. She recently graduated from the first grade. In her spare time, she likes to play chess. And this week, she won the European championship for schoolchildren her age, defeating 12 other girls in a grueling competition that lasted eight days.

And, in another fail:

Tunisian authorities backtracked on their refusal to grant a visa to Liel Levitan from Haifa for the World School Individual Championships next year in Sousse, France’s National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, said Friday in a statement. The FIDE World Chess Federation pressured its Tunisian affiliate and the country’s authorities to allow her to compete, according to the report.

If the BDS crowd want to claim the relocation of Sodastream to the Negev from Maale Adumim on the Golan as their doing, they can also claim that they succeeded in doing more damage to the Palestinians on the West Bank than any other action in the last 70 years.

The Guardian will expend much effort not to let ‘The Guardian Faithful’ forget BDS. It is so about ‘Windrush’ and ‘Grenfel’ too. Mind you, ‘the Windrush’ scandals were really disgraceful. People who lived, worked and paid taxes in the UK for 50 years, suddenly returned to the West Indies! That’s disgraceful. But the government has tried to ‘make things right’. Even if belatedly.

And Grenfel should rightly be used to have more inspections of high rise buildings and the building materials used by cost conscious contractors.

This is such happy news that it raises the question, why did I think BDS was winning?

Oddly enough, I’ve accidentally sent less money to Israel this year because of typical charity scare tactics. Each morning I immediately delete all the scare headlines or I’d go mad, reading. Since I give money to help animals, I get pictures of animal torture almost every day—Korean dogs in cages waiting to be eaten, piles of dead coyotes from a legal hunt, a lonely aged elephant in Georgia at an amusement park. Since I give money to save wetlands, Save the Bay tells me plastic straws are ending civilization, somebody shot a dolphin with an arrow, the world’s smallest dolphin is down to 38 individuals in Mexico.

And since I give money to Israel charities, their PR firms send weekly emails claiming Israel and BDS on life support too. I’ve started erasing each day’s ten or fifteen charity horror stories without reading it. I have the right to have a life. Ironically, I wound up giving less money, not more. The PR tactic backfires. After reading this great news, I’ll dare to open a charity email again.